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Tracking an employee's time is difficult if he works away from your facility. Until the advent of global positioning satellite (GPS) enabled cell phones, you had to take him at his word as to when he arrived at a job site and when he ended his day. GPS allows you to confirm an employee's hours by tracking his position. You must provide your employees with a company owned cell phone to track their movements legally.

1. Write a company policy regarding the use of cell phones to track employee hours. Let your employees know that you are going to be tracking their positions to ensure proper work-hours reporting. Ask employees to sign a copy of the statement and file it in their employee files.

2. Obtain a time-tracking application for your cell phones. Talk with your service provider to determine the best application to meet your requirements. Applications vary based on the type of phone you have, but choose one that has a time clock feature that allows your employees to report their work hours from the phone.

3. Provide the employees with company-owned cell phones that have GPS capability. Install the time-tracking application. Have a training class to teach your employees how the application works.

4. Calculate your employees' hours using the log-in and out times provided by the phone.

Tip

If you do not want to have the expense of purchasing company cellphones for your employees, set up a phone line for reporting hours. Your employees can call or text the number from their own phones to report their start and stop times.

Warnings

Typically, there is a monthly fee for services that track an employee's hours.

About the Author

Specializing in business and finance, Lee Nichols began writing in 2002. Nichols holds a Bachelor of Arts in Web and Graphic Design and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Mississippi.